Culture and Educational Policy in Hawai'i: The Silencing of Native Voices. Sociocultural, Political, and Historical Studies in Education.

Benham, Maenette K. P. Ah Nee; Heck, Ronald H.

This book provides a critical assessment of Native Hawaiian education. It focuses on the historical, political, and cultural contexts producing institutionalized structures that kept Hawaiians marginalized in the schools and wider society. It also looks at current attempts of Native Hawaiians to reclaim a part of their lands and self-determination through political sovereignty and Hawaiian immersion education. The Hawaiian experience can help in the development of multicultural educational policies. Part 1 examines how education socializes children to the dominant political interests of the times; how this played out in America's westward expansion in general, and in Hawaii in particular; and the implications for implementing multicultural educational policies. Part 2 presents case histories in four periods of Hawaiian history: the arrival of American missionaries in the 1820s; the overthrow of Hawaiian government; the Americanization of Native Hawaiians, 1930s-1960s; and the present-day renewal of interest in Hawaiian sovereignty. The last part expands the discussion of how Western cultural values and American policies were institutionalized in Hawaiian schools; how the relationship between Native peoples and government has shifted during the past two decades; efforts to preserve Hawaiian culture and language; and major issues that need to be resolved politically, educationally, and socially with respect to Native Hawaiians. Three appendices present Hawaii's monarchy, territorial governors, and the distribution of values among school policy mechanisms. Contains 274 references, a glossary, photographs, and author and subject indices. (TD)